When my husband and I built our new home, we spent an absolute fortune on the heating and cooling system.
Dirk and I are extremely energy conscious and looked for a system which would minimize our carbon footprint. I consulted with a local HVAC contractor, expressed our priorities, and he recommended a geothermal heat pump. Dirk and I researched geothermal HVAC and learned that this type of temperature control is considered the most environmentally friendly by the EPA. It makes use of the readily available energy found underground, and simply moves heat from one place to another. During the winter, the geothermal heat pump draws from the fairly stable underground temperature to supply heat into the home. In the summer months, the heat pump literally reverses the operation, pulling heat out of the home. This process is so wonderfully energy efficient, it produces four units of energy for every single unit it requires to operate. Despite the huge cost of installing the underground loop system and heat pump, Dirk and I expected to recover our investment in under five years. We’d read that this type of system can maintain perfect year round temperature for approximately a dollar a day. Unfortunately, we failed to realize that a geothermal heat pump struggles to handle severe cold. Dirk and I live in an area where the wintertime temperature frequently drops below zero. No matter how high we crank up the thermostat, or how hard the heat pump struggles, our house is slightly chilly. We’ve actually bought a bunch of portable space heaters to supplement the heat pump.